Jersy-girl-turned-islander Jewel spends her days hosting fishing excursions on her father’s boats. After ten years on the island, she’s learned to avoid vacationers with sexy smiles and promises they can’t keep. Until gorgeous J. T. Hollander arrives, a man whose mouth and hands she wants all over her body.
J. T. is just looking for a little R & R on the remote Caribbean island–until he meets Jewel. A beautiful topless woman in paradise is one temptation that is simply too irresistible to pass up. But a mainlander on holiday has to return to the real world someday–doesn’t he?
This novella is compact and well-written and is about three people–Jewel, J. T. and Jewel’s dad. The beauty of the island and Jewel’s involvement with her dad’s business are all backstory material and yet they give color and context to the love story here.
A beautiful, emotionally shut-down woman, living from day to day as her father’s business partner. He, too, has come to this island to heal after the death of Jewel’s mother, a woman greatly loved by her dad and missed terribly by both of them. Now J. T. comes for an extended holiday. He is a Manhattan stock broker who doesn’t particularly like his job, but has made buckets of money and can afford to take some time away from the rat-race. After almost a month of lusting after Jewel, being contantly tempted by her lovely body, they begin their affair.
Yet there is always the emotional baggage, and this situation is no exception. Jewel’s personal history has been full of hurt and disappointment and has become a refusal to ever allow herself to be hurt that way again–a married man who seemed to have forgotten his wife and two little ones until they showed up at Jewel’s door. Oops!! Yet she has come to believe that J. T. is an honest man who has no desire to hurt her. However, no matter how diligently one guards the heart, those love bonds appear.
This is a very warm and engaging love story about two people who are trying to find their way–one who is needing a new direction in life and another who needs to come alive emotionally once again. Even Jewel’s dad has come to a crossroads in his life so that he needs to finally allow his past with Jewel’s mother to be over, even though she will always be alive in his heart. He has to grab on to the warm and alive woman who has finally snagged his love.
So I recommend this to fans who like contemporary romance and who want a short read that is just very nice. I felt that this was one of those stories that I was glad to have read and which really was, at the cost of sounding sappy, one to leave the reader with lots of warm fuzzies. We all need those stories from time to time. J. T. and Jewel’s story reminds us all that past hurts don’t have to decide one’s future or be given the power to rob anyone of the best that life can offer.
I give this novella a rating of 3.75 out of 5.
You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.
